Todd Bishop
Airbus welcomed new members in January, but probably everyone had no chance to take the plane. Because this aircraft is called “Super Beluga”, a special cargo aircraft converted from A330 passenger aircraft.
Airbus’ new cargo aircraft model is A330-700L, nicknamed “Beluga XL. Airbus was developed in 2018 to replace the Beluga A300-600ST, which has been in service for more than 10 years.
Can carry two whole A350 wings
The specially constructed fuselage makes the appearance of the cargo aircraft resembles a beluga whale, while the new cargo aircraft is 6 meters wide and 1 meter longer and has a total length of 63.1 meters. It can carry two whole A350 passenger aircraft wings. Both the fuselage components and the engine were fine.
The development of the Great White Whale is mainly to meet the needs of increasing the production capacity of Airbus. As the demand of the global aviation market increases, Airbus needs more transportation vehicles that can carry aircraft parts to the assembly site. After the old white whale is aging and in short supply, a new white whale is required to take on the heavy responsibility, and the super white whale is born.
At present, Airbus has built 5 super beluga whales, and the old 5 beluga whales will be in service until 2021 and will be replaced by super beluga.
